Finish work...

The cabin house windows are installed! (With the exception of the center opening window... )

We finished epoxying the 3/8ths marine plywood skin around the roof overhang.  The 15 panels were epoxy coated, primed with Awlgrip Awlquick and sanded out to 220 grit prior to being mounted, to save overhead sanding.    We will spend the next few days pulling fillets in the inside and outside corners and touching up where the seams go together.  The seams are backed with 1/2 inch marine plywood butt blocks to keep them both fair and strong. 


The temporary 2x4 posts holding the rear overhang have been replaced with douglass fir uprights skinned in 1/2 inch marine plywood and fiberglassed all over and tabbed to the deck. The longitudinal beams underwent the same treatment.  The pink colored putty you see is Awlgrips Awlfair.  The support posts have 5/8ths stainless rod running through the center, with stainless backing plates top and bottom to keep things firmly attached to the deck. The top nuts and coupler inside the beams are TIG welded in place so the only nut that could be tightened are those under the deck.  In the continued spirit of overkill, we mounted a backing block between the deck beams built up of laminated marine plywood, and installed a stainless strap across the blocking to the neighboring deck beams.  A similar stainless strap is mounted on the top end.


The rear posts and beams are ready for primer, and the 10 foot by x 9 foot center section is awaiting wiring for the stern light, deck lights, and speakers.  We have 2 sheets of 5 foot by 10 foot marine plywood waiting to be faired, primed and installed.

- Zach

New window frames Spring 2013

Noel is for Sale.  http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1942-Coast-Guard-Cutter-Classic-Wheeler-83-Footer-/221212537571?pt=Power_Motorboats&hash=item33814b72e3

We are still actively working towards completion.

The front windows framing have been redone.  We replaced the sill, the support posts and all the internal framing.  I broke my camera for the demolition process, 

The sill is 2 inch thick mahogany, the posts are made of salt treated pine skinned in 1/2 inch plywood.  The window mouldings are made of 3/4 marine plywood.  The inner and outer top band was replaced with laminated plywood, 3/4 thick on the inside and 1/2 inch thick on the outside made of multiple layers.  Everything was then fiberglassed with epoxy and sanded to perfection currently awaiting window glass installation.  The outside trim is made out of PVC, filled, faired, sanded and painted to match the inner openings.  When the weather see's fit to give us 70 degrees night time temperatures the new glass will go in. 

We have the 3/8ths plywood skin for the roof overhang fitted.  15 sheets of 3/8ths marine grade, resin coated, sanded, primed and sanded... out to 220 grit.  They will be going up this week, glued and filleted in.

More pictures to come.

Update: Summer 2012

This summer involved a lot of fiberglass work, lots of sanding and puttying.

The completed results: 

June/July 2012

We completed the brow, fiberglass work, sanding, and primer and took down the staging.

We are refining the toe rail, with 20+ foot long wooden battens that bend to a fair curve, sanding and sculpting so that her lines are smooth, with the top level and the inside and outside edges plumb.

More work has been done in the engine room.  We replaced the engine/state room bulkhead and have laminated in 25 new frames with douglas fir and epoxy, along with new floor timbers.  We are rebuilding the floors under the engines, and will be pulling the engines forward to clean and paint the engine stringers.  Photographs to come.  

Staging and a new brow

We've been working on the lines on the top of the cabin. Not exactly the easiest thing to do while floating, as the ends of each frame need to be the same angle, plumb, in a world that rocks and rolls.

We built staging and walk boards to go down the length of the boat, wrapping around the front of the cabin, hanging out over the water. To say it looks a bit odd, might be an understatement, but it works.

Once the lines were right to start going back together, we wrapped 1/2 inch plywood around the sides, leaving it wider than it needed to be scribing it to fit. Once that was epoxied in place we sanded it out until any wiggles were gone and the bevel remained constant the whole way around.

After that was in place, we used white PVC board to make the top toe rail, ripping it to size. We made it out of two layers laminated together. We started off by sawing the strips and screwing them together then ripping the bevel. Then the whole board was wrapped around the curve, and screwed in to place with the screws marked. We disassembled the layers, applied epoxy and screwed them back together, then screwed the assembly to the roof. It is always interesting to work with wet epoxy while trying to get things lined up, doubly so when its on plastic.

The bottom drip edge is made of the same white pvc board, cut 3/4 thick and rounded over with a router. This took a bit more work as the bevel of the underside of a curve does not remain the same as it arches up around the front of the cabin. It's a bit like trying to wrap a piece of paper around a basketball, flat things bent in to curves wrinkle up when trying to take shapes.

Once the drip edge was fit, we backed the screws out and used an acid brush to apply thickened epoxy, driving the screws back flush. These were backed out the next day, and the white pvc was sanded flush to the plywood.

This will all be fiberglassed in, faired out and primed while the staging is up.

We are still making progress in the engine room, the port side is finished aside from installing new clamp boards. The starboard side is coming together nicely, scarfing the side frames that we installed while replanking from the waterline up, in with new laminated frames from the waterline down to the keel. We are replacing the floor timbers, with douglass fir laminated like a bread board out of 2 1/8th wide, 1 1/2 inch thick boards. All this work is being entombed in epoxy, and should be around for awhile... It is slow going, as the round chine of the hull demands each strip be 3/16th to 1/4 inch thick. The holes for the screws are predrilled, before the glue is applied, the stack taking apart, glue applied and put back in place. Each frame takes between 8 and 10 strips. There are 20 frames on each side, and 20 floors.


Next topics to be addressed: Fiberglassing the toe rail on the port side, and painting the hull.

Zach

March 2012

Since the last update:
We completed the priming of the shower stalls, both of them sanded out to 320 grit and ready for topcoat.

We found some things that needed attention in the chain locker, and scarfed in new wood on the bulkhead frame, and epoxied 3/4 plywood to the face of each clamp board.

We fitted the breast piece behind the new stem, and readied the port toe rail for fiberglass.

In the lazarette, we built a pedestal for the generator to sit on, mounted the electrical panel, and power selector switch for the shore power.

We faired the exterior walls of the cabin, and have them in primer, along with the stern deck.
We also faired the staircase going forward to the sleeping quarters, and have it in primer.
All walls in the sleeping quarters have been sanded out and are ready for a fresh coat of paint.

We pulled in a surveyor to look over our work, and found the steel engine bedding needed repair. We have been going frame by frame and floor by floor stripping in douglass fir under the steel on the port side. These are 13 foot long strips, 2 1/4 wide by 1/4 thick. It takes 10 layers to build up the thickness of each frame. 19 frames, 19 floor timbers and a bulkhead.

We are screw laminating the strips together, meaning each one is keyed in to the keel and up under the sheer clamp (where the hull and deck meet) and aligned to each other, pre-drilled for screws, taken back apart and glued, put back together so all index marks line up and screws applied. Between two and four layers are installed at a time, the forward end of the engine room has a larger radius than the aft end.

The next day the screws are removed, the strip is acetone wiped and sanded and the next bundle readied to go on top.

The floors and frames directly under the engines need to be replaced, and to do that the engines have to be moved. We are replacing the floors ahead of them and will replace the steel stringers and build a set of skids to slide the engines forward on to the new work. Then once they are forward, we will begin the repair of the area directly below the engines.

In order to do this, we had to take the aft skin of plywood off of the forward engine room bulkhead to put in some substantial blocking for a winch. The tool boxes and work bench have been moved for now.

We removed the sea-strainers to access some rusted metal under them. Directly beside them we removed the support columns right above the shaft alley from the aft end of the engine room to replace the floor timbers under them. We had to replace the frames beside those floor timbers, first, in order to have something to press against with 3 column jacks to take the weight off the support posts.

October 2011

October has been spent finishing the last of this years exterior and paint work.

We faired the port side of the cabin, blending it to the rounded cabin front. This involved grinding down some high spots, and filling low spots until it followed a smooth arching curve. Each of the window openings remain flat, but a batten and string read true as they go around.

The aft cabin wall went backwards a step, as we tabbed it to the deck, a step we had planned to do when glassing the rear deck under the overhang after the fish box and companionway to the engine room were in place.

We filled low spots along the deck line, laid a batten on deck in the inside corner and faired the corner to follow the same smooth curve. Then we pulled an epoxy fillet.

The next step is fairing the starboard side of the cabin, and on a series of warm days spraying awlgrips sprayable fairing compound around the entire cabin. The toe rails are getting fairer, and we are aiming to spray from the top corner of the cabin wall, to the outside of the toe rail each pass.

The purpose of fairing the cabin sides this fall, is so that we can move our workshop out of the upper deck, install the windows and start building in the salon. It is significantly faster to sand and fair a smooth unbroken surface, than it is to sand and fair an area with window openings already cut.

We installed the swim platform on the transom, tabbing it in with fiberglass. Not the easiest thing to do off a barge while in the water, but we managed. On the next haul out we will through bolt it to the brackets, but for now it is out of the way and water tight.

The showers in the bathrooms have been rainy day topics the last few months, the forward one is in primer and cased out for the new shower doors. We made a plywood ceiling and fiberglassed it, faired it and primed it prior to installation, as it saves sanding overhead!

The master state room shower is getting the same shower door casing, and is awaiting fiberglass around the casing. The fillets are pulled, and next week it will be primed.

We are shooting to have them shiny in Awlgrip next week, and conclude the dust making so we can move on with the cabinets.

Alas, it is fall once again. It takes longer for epoxy to cure, it takes the perfect day to paint... so the last big push to finish all the little things that need to be done before it gets to cold to do them.

Zach